STILLMAN VALLEY - No. 1-ranked Dakota had the most wins, but Byron had the biggest wins.

That left both coaches with mixed feelings, and the exact same words, after Dakota kept its hopes of a repeat Class 1A state title alive Saturday when it edged the Tigers 272-235 in the Stillman Valley Regional.

"We're always the bridesmaid and never the bride," Byron coach Mike Ellsbury said after the Tigers were eliminated by one of the top two teams in the state for the third year in a row. "I wish I was anywhere else. We were close. We've got good kids, but they are better than us."

They beat a lot of Indians on Saturday, going 5-1 head-to-head against Dakota in the finals.

"We're always the bridesmaid, never the bride," Alber said.

Two Tigers rallied from three points down to win (Danny Falconer at 170 and Ross Sealby at 220). Byron also pulled two upsets over the No. 1-ranked wrestler in the state (Brady Wilsie over Dillon Swift at 106 and Sealby over Daniel Zimmerman at 220).

Dakota and Byron had six champs each, dominating the nine-team regional so much that third-place Stillman Valley was more than 100 points behind runner-up Byron. Dakota had virtually a perfect tournament until the final round, sending 12 of 14 wrestlers to the finals.

"We've done this every tournament. ... It's driving me crazy," Alber said. "It's just depressing. We can't get away from it. We get all these kids in the finals and we just can't finish it. ... I've got to try to be happy for the kids who deserve it."

Dakota lost the first four final matches before Josh Alber, J.J. Wolfe, Greg Krulas, Carver James and Jared Packer won the next five weights. Nathan Schultz also won at 195.

"Our littler guys didn't get the job done," Krulas said, "so it was up to our bigger guys to bring it home. We know this is our season again. We're coming back."

Wilsie (33-2), Nolan Baker (36-4) and Nelson Baker (35-0) gave Byron the first three champs of the night. Wilsie and Baker avenged losses to Swift and Alec Henze at the Princeton tournament.

"I put in a lot of overtime practice, doing shots at home where we have a mat upstairs," said Wilsie, who won 11-6. "I was confident today was the day I was going to show what was going to go down."

Nolan Baker had lost 3-2 on a last-second takedown at Princeton. This time he won 8-6 on a reversal with seven seconds left.

"I wasn't fazed by that first loss," Baker said. "It helped me. This time I knew what he was coming with."

Page 2 of 2 - Sealby, who was pinned by Zimmerman last year, threw Zimmerman with two last-period lateral drops for takedowns to force overtime, then switched him with one second left to win 7-6.

"I was really tired, but had just enough left to get that switch," Sealby said. "I was just waiting for that one moment to use it all up. I had to use it all in one spot, and that was it."

Danny Falconer (170) and Nathan Schultz (195) also won for Byron. Winnebago's Sean Ward won his first regional title at 182.

"I knew I had a good chance," Ward said. "I just had to bring it."

Polo Regional

Lena-Winslow/Stockton had six champions and almost doubled runner-up Sterling Newman's score (241.5 to 126.5) to win its third regional title in school history. Freshmen Austin Vincent (106) and Kyle Kalkbrenner (132), juniors Gunner Wenger (138) and Tristan Miller (285) and senior defending state champions Quincy Kalkbrenner and Ty Harmston won for the Panthers.